Australian Journal of International Affairs ISSN: 1035-7718 (Print) 1465-332X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/caji20 The Institute’s seventieth volume: the journal, its origins and its engagement with foreign policy debate James Cotton To cite this article: James Cotton (2016): The Institute’s seventieth volume: the journal, its origins and its engagement with foreign policy debate, Australian Journal of International Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/10357718.2016.1167836 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2016.1167836 Published online: 18 May 2016. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 18 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=caji20 Download by: [203.219.87.178] Date: 04 July 2016, At: 18:46 AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2016.1167836 COMMENTARY AND PROVOCATION The Institute’s seventieth volume: the journal, its origins and its engagement with foreign policy debate James Cotton University of New South Wales, ADFA, Canberra, Australia ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Australian Outlook, published initially in 1947, was Australia’s first Australian Institute of journal devoted exclusively to the analysis of Australia’s foreign International Affairs relations and of international affairs. It emerged from a context publications; Australian where nationalist and internationalist sentiments were taking on foreign policy analysis; international relations new prominence and in a time of heightened public awareness of discipline global issues. The journal came to provide a unique venue for academic and expert commentary, especially on the international politics of Australia’s region, as well as on a wide range of topics from defence and trade to great-power dynamics. Early contributions demonstrated a generally sound—and sometimes remarkably prescient—grasp of regional and international trends. The journal built on earlier Australian Institute of International Affairs publications—notably, the Austral-Asiatic Bulletin, inaugurated in 1937. On March 27, 1947, the Minister of External Affairs, Dr H. V. Evatt, dispatched a telegram to Professor A. H. McDonald to congratulate him, as editor, on the appearance of the first issue of Australian Outlook, and promised an article ‘in the near future’ (AIIA Records, Evatt to McDonald, Box 13, 1.1, Folder 110). While the article from his pen never even- tuated, from the first the Australian Institute of International Affairs’ (AIIA’s) journal Downloaded by [203.219.87.178] at 18:46 04 July 2016 attracted attention at the highest reaches of the Australian policy community. In time, ministers of external and then of foreign affairs—notably, Paul Hasluck, Gough Whitlam, Tony Street and Bill Hayden—all published contributions in the years when the journal appeared under this title. This article reviews the journal’s origins, early char- acter and forerunners. The emergence of Australian Outlook Australian Outlook, the immediate predecessor to the Australian Journal of International Affairs, emerged from the Australian experience of the wartime years. Quite apart from the physical threat of invasion experienced in 1942, the immense influence of wartime broad- casting and the many educational programs conducted especially by the Army Education CONTACT James Cotton [email protected] © 2016 Australian Journal of International Affairs 2 J. COTTON Service vastly stimulated awareness of the vital importance of regional and global issues for national survival and prosperity. Australian determination to help shape the post-war order, and the emergence of internationalist schools of thought focused on the scope and possibilities of that task, impelled new channels of expression (Brown 2005; Cotton 2013b). The AIIA was far from inactive in the war years (Legge 1999,79–102). A delegation attended the Eighth Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, held at Mont Trem- blant, Quebec, in December 1942, and the papers prepared for the conference were pub- lished in the USA in 1944 (AIIA 1944); papers were subsequently researched and written for the Institute of Pacific Relations Conference at Hot Springs, Virginia, held in 1945, and for the Third Commonwealth Relations Conference held in London later that same year. Policy essays in a series entitled ‘Australia in a New World’ were also produced. The fact that this work could be completed despite the dislocations of wartime impressed the Rock- efeller Foundation, which had provided funding to the Institute under an arrangement initiated before the Pacific conflict. Accordingly, a further application to Rockefeller was successful, with the AIIA receiving a grant for the period 1945–47 of US$7500 per annum. Carnegie was to step in with more support in 1948 (Legge 1999,86–91). These funds were intended to facilitate the reorganisation of the Institute, which undertook to establish a new governing Commonwealth Council, as well as a National Office (in place of the former loose federal structure) with a full-time executive officer. In October 1945, the AIIA appointed Molly Kingston, a Sydney lawyer who had been an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, to the latter position. The AIIA rose to the challenge of informing and enriching the public debate on policy —a debate stimulated by a new consciousness of the importance of foreign affairs. In Molly Kingston, the Institute had found a highly committed professional who played no small part in raising the organisation’s profile. She contacted both Chatham House and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs with the intention of learning more about their organisations, including especially their publication programs. It emerged that the Canadians were busy with plans for their own journal—the International Journal, appearing in 1946 (AIIA Records, correspondence with Douglas MacLennan, Box 13, 1.1, Folder 111). As the president of the Canadian Institute of International Downloaded by [203.219.87.178] at 18:46 04 July 2016 Affairs observed of this new venture: Canada has a peculiar place in the community of nations and a unique opportunity to make a significant contribution to the cause of international understanding. We have escaped the physical destruction of the past six years; by our contribution to the victory, we have earned a right to be heard; we are so situated as to understand with sympathy both the pur- poses and the prejudices of the great nations; and, in general, we enjoy the trust and respect of great and small nations alike. Canada has today an opportunity for leadership in world affairs that comes seldom to a nation of twelve million people. But to be able to grasp this oppor- tunity there must be more than action by our political leaders. They must be supported by the informed and thoughtful public opinion of Canadians generally (Fowler 1946,6). There is little doubt that such sentiments struck a chord amongst members of the Austra- lian Institute, and with Molly Kingston in particular. Writing in early 1946 to her Cana- dian counterpart, she informed him that the reorganised Institute was considering ‘taking over … as a Commonwealth publication’ the review the Austral-Asiatic Bulletin, which had been established as an initiative and responsibility of the Victorian Branch in 1937, AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 3 and which then had a subscription list of 640 (AIIA Records, Kingston to MacLellan, January 4, 1946, Box 13, 1.1, Folder 111). The Bulletin will be discussed further below. The Victorian Branch had offered to continue the responsibilities entailed in its publi- cation in the name of the AIIA, whereas it was Kingston’s view that ‘all … publications … should be published as from the Australian Institute as a whole’. After discussion amongst the Institute’s branches, Kingston was able to inform members in December 1946 that the journal would proceed as a national concern. The proposed title had led to some debate, with International Affairs, International Relations and Australian Foreign Affairs all being suggested. Kingston was able to inform members that the title Australian Outlook, a suggestion made by Hugh Alexander McClure-Smith, had been adopted on the grounds that it ‘has the advantage of including the word Australian and conveying that the journal is a survey of International affairs primarily by Australians from the Australian angle’ (AIIA Records, ‘Memorandum to Branches’, December 2, 1946, Box 13, 1.1, Folder 111). McClure-Smith was then editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and later a diplomat (serving ultimately as ambassador in Egypt, the Netherlands and Italy). He may have had in mind a very similar phrase that was first used as the subtitle of a book with which he was undoubtedly familiar: W. Macmahon Ball’s(1938) Press, Radio and World Affairs: Australia’s Outlook, which had been published by the Victorian AIIA in 1938. On August 17, 1946, the Commonwealth Council formally resolved that publication of Australian Outlook would proceed, with Professor Alexander Hugh McDonald of the Uni- versity of Sydney as editor and the Commonwealth Secretary as associate editor. During the war, McDonald had ably edited Current Affairs, issued by the Army Directorate of Education (the predecessor to the Current Affairs Bulletin of 1947–98). Instead of AIIA members receiving under special arrangements copies of the Chatham House journal, International Affairs,